Peer Khairi denies his wife's newfound liberation led him to kill her

Honour-killing accused denies his wife's newfound liberation led him to kill her

Peer Khairi’s memory seems a funny thing.

Just this past April, Mr. Khairi — an Afghan immigrant on trial for murdering his wife — told a doctor that Randjida Khairi began “acting out” after she learned women in Canada had rights, the court heard.

But in the witness box Thursday, Mr. Khairi could recall none of the details so crucial to the Crown’s honour-killing theory.

He did not recall telling the doctor who examined him in April that Canada was “biased toward the rights of women.” (Said Mr. Khairi on Thursday: “If I thought that, I wouldn’t have come to Canada.”) Nor did he recall complaining of his wife’s newfound liberation in the months before he stabbed her to death on March 18, 2008.

“I didn’t know what was in Randjida’s heart,” Mr. Khairi told the Superior Court jury, speaking through a Dari interpreter. “She did not tell me that she went and learned about her rights.”

Yet the court has heard both Mr. and Ms. Khairi attended a seminar through a local organization for Afghan immigrants, where the topic was women’s and children’s rights. After that workshop, Mr. Khairi — who had been relying on the organization for assistance — abruptly cut off contact, Crown attorney Amanda Camara said.

The Khairis also began fighting more after the seminar, Ms. Camara suggested.